Hundreds of bags of radioactive waste washed away in Japan floods

Japan’s unprecedented rainfall last week resulted in hundreds of bags of
radioactive debris from the 2011 Fukushima clean up being swept away into a
river

A hotel building falls into the floodwaters at Nikko mountain resort in Tochigi prefecture, north of Tokyo Photo: AFP

By Danielle Demetriou in Tokyo

3:47AM BST 14 Sep 2015

Hundreds of bags containing radioactive waste from the Fukushima disaster nuclear clean-up have been swept away in recent floods in Japan, it has emerged.

The torrential rainfall which hit Japan last week resulted in at least 293 bags of radioactive waste collected after the 2011 nuclear disaster being washed away from the village of Iitate, Fukushima prefecture.

Goods lie strewn across the floor of a shopping centre following heavy flooding in the city of Joso, Japan. Thousands of rescuers arrived in the deluged city north of Tokyo to help evacuate hundreds of trapped residents and search for 12 people missing after torrential rains triggered massive flooding Photo: KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP

Concerns have been raised over the fact that some bags were known to have leaked their contents, while emergency workers have so far retrieved 171 bags from a river, according to Kyodo news.

Unprecedented rainfall fuelled by a tropical storm deluged the nation last week, with regions in the north – areas also affected badly in the 2011 tsunami and earthquake – hit particularly hard.

The death toll from the floodings rose to seven on Monday, with 15 people still missing, while thousands of homes remain submerged, as depicted in dramatic media images were eerily reminiscent of the 2011 tsunami disaster.

The city of Joso, home to 65,000 residents, was affected particularly badly, with swathes washed away when a levee on the Kinugawa River gave way resulting in more than 12 square miles of flooding.

Critical infrastructure such as electrical power, communication and water supply systems were also damaged in the floodings while thousands of residents remain evacuated from their homes.

Among the survivors was Joso resident Akinori Nagaoka, 39, who returned home with his son after the flooding to find the ground floor filled with muddy brown water.

“I have never seen anything like this before,” he told AFP. “I wonder when we can come back and live like it was.”